Removing temporary seals from containers



Aug. 15, 1961 R. M. AUBRY ET AL 2,995,883

REMOVING TEMPORARY SEALS FROM CONTAINERS Filed July 5, 1960 INVENTORS RICHARD 7- 1408K) United States Patent 2,995,883 REMOVING TEMPORARKSSEALS FROM 6 Claims. (Cl. 53-381) This invention relates to method and apparatus for removing seals from containers.

In many applications in the packaging industry, it is necessary to seal the mouth ends of containers when they are shipped to the packer. One method of doing this is to cover the mouth openings of the containers with temporary paper seals which are affixed to the containers by the container manufacturer by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive, such as is disclosed in a copending application, Serial No. 778,740, filed December 8, 1958, by a coinventor of the present application. Prior to filling the containers, which are ordinarily moved to the filling machine by means of a horizontal endless conveyor, the packer must necessarily remove these temporary seals.

Accordingly, it is an object of our invention to provide method and apparatus for automatically removing seals from unfilled containers.

Another object of our invention is to provide simple inexpensive apparatus for removing seals from containers as they are moved along by a conveyor, without interrupting the forward movement of the containers.

Another object of our invention is to provide a method for removing temporary seals during horizontal movement of the containers, such as during movement in the filling line toward the filling apparatus, without the necessity of extra handling of the containers by the packer, without leaving any adhesive adhering to the containers.

The specific nature of this invention, as well as other objects and advantages thereof, will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed de scription taken in conjunction with the annexed sheet of drawings on which, by way of example only, the preferred embodiment of this invention is illustrated.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an end view of the apparatus incorporating our invention, with the seal removed from the container.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the apparatus incorporating our invention taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, narrow-neck containers 10, glass bottles for example, with adhesively alfixed flexible paper seals 11 covering their mouth ends 12 are moved along a predetermined path by an endless horizontal conveyor 13. A pressure sensitive adhesive is used to secure the seals to the containers, thereby making it possible for the seals to be removed by pulling them ofi. As a container is conveyed in a forward direction, a marginal portion [4 of the seal, which extends beyond the mouth end 12 of the container in a forward direction, is deflected upwardly by means such as an air blast 15. Air blast is provided by an air tube 16 to which air is supplied under pressure (by means not shown) and which is positioned adjacent the conveyor to direct the air to the forwardly extending marginal portion of a flexible seal. While the narginal portion of the seal is thus upwardly deflected, it s contacted by a stationary wire 19 which is positioned n the path of the seals and is secured to a stationary sup- Jort bracket 24. The wire 19 is bent to form a plane iurface which will deflect the forward portion of the seal )etween two rollers, which will presently be described. in some applications it is possible to omit the air blast which is provided to merely insure that a portion of he seal will contact the wire. It is to be understood, of

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course, that various other plane surfaces could be used to deflect a portion of the seal upwardly.

Located above the path of the containers 10 is a pair of parallel rollers 20 and 21 which coact to remove the seals from the containers. The upper roller 20, which has the larger diameter, is attached to an upper shaft 22 which is journaled in bearings 23 mounted in stationary support brackets 24. A pulley 26 is attached at one outer end 25 of the upper shaft 22. The pulley 26, and hence the upper shaft 22 and upper roller 20, is driven by means of a belt 27 and an electric motor 28.

The lower roller 21 is rotatably mounted directly below and in frictional contact with the upper roller 20, so as to allow it to be driven by the upper roller, on a lower shaft 29 which is parallel with the upper shaft and has its ends journaled in bearings 30, mounted in depending brackets 31. The depending brackets 31 have their upper ends 32 aflixed to collar extensions 33 of the bearings 23 of the upper shaft. The lower roller is of relatively small diameter so as to allow the containers to pass beneath it without having their forward motion interrupted and still allow a portion of the seal to be nipped between the upper and lower rollers. It is also desirable to have the lower roller of as small a diameter as possible to allow seals to be removed from the containers in a direction as nearly parallel to the path of the containers as is possible. The desirability of this will be described later. It is preferable to have the upper roller of relatively large diameter, so that a seal striking the upper roller will be guided between the rollers. Both the upper and lower rollers may be formed of synthetic rubber or any like material which will allow them to frictionally engage the seals.

A chute 35 for directly the seals to a waste receptacle (not shown) is afixed to one of the stationary support brackets 24. The chute 35 has a rectangular receiving end 34 located adjacent the line of contact between the two rollers and opposite point of entry of the seals, thereby allowing it to receive the seals as they come from the rollers.

In operation, unfilled containers, with paper seals covering and overlapping their mouth ends, are moved in a forward direction by the horizontal conveyor 13. Prior to reaching the rollers, the forwardly extending marginal portion of the seals is deflected upwardly by the air blast 15. While extending upwardly, the marginal portions of the seals are engaged by and maintained in this upwardly position by the wire 19 until they are nipped between the rollers 20 and 21. The rollers, which are rotating at high speed and in a forward direction, pull the seals off the containers and pass them to the receiving end of the chute 35 which directs the seals to a waste receptacle. By high speed it is meant that the peripheral speed of the rollers is much in excess of the linear speed of the seals on the moving containers. Since the lower roller is of a relatively small diameter, the path taken by the seals as they leave the containers is substantially parallel to that of the path of the containers, thereby causing the seals to be sheared from the containers. We have found that by shearing the seals from the containers, adhesive will adhere to the paper seals and leave the container surface relatively free of adhesive. The desealed containers pass .under the lower roller and continue on their way to a filling machine or the like. Rotational motion is imparted to the upper roller 20 by means of the electric motor 28 which rotates the upper shaft 22 through the belt 27 and the pulley 26.

We have found that it is not necessary to space, guide, or hold narrow-neck containers, of the type shown, during the descaling operation. If the rollers are of substantial length, the above-described apparatus may be applied to all sizes and shapes of containers. Conventional hold- 3 down means may be desirable in removing seals from wide mouth containers.

It is to be understood that various details of construction may be modified through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and it is not, therefore, the purpose to limit the patent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for removing paper seals from containers comprising means for moving the said containers with the seals thereon along a predetermined horizontal path, a pair of rollers rotatably mounted in frictional contact with each other and having their axes of rotation positioned transverse to the path of said containers, the lowermost of said rollers being located proximately above the path of said containers, means for deflecting a leading portion of said seals between said rollers, and means for rotating at least one of said rollers whereby said rollers will frictionally engage said seals and remove them from the forwardly moving containers.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, plus a chute for receiving the seals as they are discharged by the rollers, said chute having a receiving end located adjacent the line of contact between said rollers and opposite point of entry of said seals.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said deflection means comprise a substantially stationary Wire having a portion in the path of said seals and adapted to deflect a portion of said seals between said rollers.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said deflection means includes an air blast device operable along said horizontal path for deflecting a portion of said seals upwardly.

5. A method of removing temporary flexible seals adhesively applied in overlapping marginal relationship over the mouth end of containers, comprising moving said sealed containers in succession in upright oriented relationship along a horizontal path, deflecting the leading marginal portion of the seals upwardly, and gripping said deflected portion of said seals and simultaneously moving said seals in a forwardly direction at a rate faster than the rate of movement of the containers in that direction so as to remove them from the containers without interrupting the forward movement of the latter.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the seals are moved from the containers in a direction sufliciently parallel to the path of the containers so as to allow the seals to be sheared from the containers.

N 0 references cited. 

